 "Gukesh is not even in top 20 after 11 of 19 rounds. Image: ChessbaseIndia")
World champion Gukesh Dommaraju suffered a shock defeat at the ongoing FIDE World Blitz Championship 2025 in Doha after losing to 12-year-old chess prodigy Sergey Sklokin in the third round of the tournament.
The loss came after a costly blunder by Gukesh under severe time pressure. While blitz chess is not considered Gukesh’s strongest format, the result raised eyebrows because of the huge gap in experience and rating between the two players.
Gukesh went into the game with a blitz rating of 2628, which was 228 points higher than Sklokin’s 2400 rating. The Indian star is also a grandmaster, while Sklokin holds only the FIDE Master (FM) title, which is one rank below grandmaster.
Gukesh’s reaction after the loss against Sklokin has also gone viral on social media. He was seen shaking his head in disappointment after the defeat.
The turning point of the game came on move 70. Gukesh, playing with the black pieces, had just eight seconds left on the clock, while Sklokin had around 13 seconds. At that stage, Sklokin offered a rook exchange. Gukesh was only a pawn down, and accepting the exchange could have helped him push for a draw.
However, Gukesh decided to keep fighting and declined the exchange by playing 70…Rf4. That decision proved costly. Soon after, he lost a bishop along with another pawn, and his position quickly became hopeless. Around 10 moves later, after losing his final pawn, Gukesh was forced to resign.
The defeat marked a disappointing moment in Gukesh’s World Blitz campaign and followed a mixed outing at the 2025 World Rapid Championship earlier in the week. In the Rapid event, Gukesh finished 20th, winning six games and losing two. He had been among the leaders after the opening day but slipped down the standings over the next two days.
Before the tournament, Gukesh had played down expectations, stating that classical chess remains his strongest format and that he was approaching the Rapid and Blitz events mainly as an opportunity to experiment. “So, this is an event which I don’t have a lot of expectations. I’m here just to play, just experiment, enjoy and play chess with aim of having fun,” Gukesh had said at the pre-tournament press conference.